On Sunday, at an empty Bramall Lane, Tanguy Ndombele delivered a productive, professional display. He completed 69 of his 78 passes, more than satisfactory for an advanced midfielder. No player on the pitch made more tackles and no Tottenham player made more interceptions. No teammate covered more ground.
But let me stop myself there. Because while competence is all well and good and important, Ndombele was also extraordinarily fun. There was an outside-of-the-boot pass that dissected three Sheffield United players. There was the midfielder’s magician trick repeated at will, showing the ball to an opponent before flicking it out of view and surging into space. There was the audacious chip, lifted over Aaron Ramsdale and leaving the goalkeeper frantically scanning the air for the ball like a pensioner sat on a seafront protecting his chips from the seagulls.
Plenty has been said and written about Ndombele’s goal, and rightly so. But more instructive was the goal celebration. As he jogged away to receive the adoration of open-mouthed team-mates, Ndombele was… laughing. Not smiling or shouting or screaming or cheering, but giggling involuntarily like a young child with a new bath toy.
Nobody.
— Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) January 17, 2021
Absolutely no one.
Tanguy Ndombele… #THFC#COYS pic.twitter.com/5Qo6EMrtQK
Screw your fake crowd noise; turn up the volume and let me hear the chortles of an international footballer caught off guard by his own brilliance.
It is important to document both aspects of that Ndombele performance because one does not happen without the other. You cannot survive on skill alone – however outrageous – in a Jose Mourinho team for long. He demands a physical investment that some don’t – and are not – able to meet.
Ndombele knows that only too well. Six months ago his Tottenham career appeared over before it had begun. He played 65 minutes in the Premier League between lockdown and the end of the season. After being taken off by Mourinho at half-time against Burnley on 7 March, Tottenham’s manager made his feelings clear: “I cannot give him opportunities.”
Ndombele’s status has not come via a perceived improvement in technical ability, but attitude. Look at the characteristics Mourinho mentions in his subsequent praise: “It’s the player’s mentality, the player’s will to train hard, the player’s will to be available for the team, the player’s desire to win, to earn a place in the team.” Nothing about through ball, magician’s tricks or chipped finishes there.
But if the application matters more to Mourinho, the aesthetics matter more to us. At times, the blanket coverage of the Premier League during repeated lockdowns feels a little like being caught with a cigarette by your parents and being told to smoke the remainder of the packet immediately as punishment.
There has been a Premier League, FA Cup or League Cup match broadcast live on 24 of the last 27 days. It is relentless. This is not a criticism of players or clubs, nor even the “product” itself; congestion, fatigue and the sword of Covid-cles hanging over them makes this a difficult season. But in those circumstances and with no Saturday 3pm cluster, the incessant stream of matches can easily merge into one homogenous mush. Game follows game follows game until you struggle to differentiate between that 2-0 win and that 1-1 draw.
Ndombele is the antidote, the mood-lifter and the spectacle-maker. Earlier this week, after I’d written about him in a weekend round-up, a colleague in the industry got in touch to say that his child had spent the day dribbling a ball in the garden in the freezing cold. He wasn’t pretending to be Harry Kane, but Ndombele.
In a similar way, that applies to the general audience. We may have lost the playfulness of youth and the free time for garden football dreams, but that performance will last in the memory. It is why Jack Grealish’s comic book hero style and James Maddison’s post-match interview on Tuesday stick out; individuality within the context of team sport will forever be alluring.
That, after all, is the true legacy of a footballer. It lies not in their goals or passing highlight reels or sprint data, but in a child running in the garden with football at feet, commentating on their own fantastical exploits and shouting your name as they dash and dive around the grass. Ndombele is an accidental inspiration because he demonstrably enjoys himself in a sport that has been made to feel like Very Serious Business.
Tottenham are lucky to have Ndombele – their supporters are well aware of that. But in a way we’re all lucky to have him. In a game that too often gets wrapped up in the Very Serious Business, that is fighting itself just to squeeze the sheer volume of matches in, he plays as if intent on enjoying himself. Ndombele is a one-off. And we must celebrate those who provide variety to contrast with homogeneity. Heaven knows we need them now.
Daniel Storey’s i football column is published in print and online on Friday mornings. You can follow him on Twitter @danielstorey85
More from Daniel Storey
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- Project ‘Bigger’ Picture: An alternative vision for the future of English football
- Liverpool have become complacent and Klopp has to find the root cause
- The FA should punish Covid rule-breakers – apologies are not enough
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